Federal 100: Sherrill Nicely

Sherrill Nicely is an advocate for improved and effective security strategies in a variety of government and industry forums. Her leadership on the Committee on National Security Systems has resulted in a renewed focus on aligning information security and identity management requirements across the federal government.

Thanks to her efforts, the government now operates under a single set of security controls. This work — codified in the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Special Publication 800-53 and related documents — provides a guide for government agencies to align their efforts and allows industry to build interoperable security applications for the entire federal sphere.

Nicely also championed the adoption of a common smart card and public-key infrastructure solution for all federal agencies that operate classified systems.

The Census Bureau hasn't established a time frame for its cloud computing plans, including testing for scalability, security, and privacy protection, as well as determining a budget for cloud services.